Press Releases, 4/26/2013 | Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala to Tajikistan

Press release 96/2013
26 April 2013

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will visit Tajikistan from 28 April to 2 May. The trip is associated with Finland’s development cooperation in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, which from the year 2014 will focus on Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the poorest countries of Central Asia.

During her visit, Minister Hautala will have discussions on the situation in Tajikistan and Central Asia with representatives of the authorities, international organisations and civil society organisations. Attention is focused, among others, on the implementation of human rights. The Minister will take part in the regional seminar entitled “Ensuring women’s rights: law and practice”, which is part of the project supporting the legal sector funded by Finland. The seminar will also be attended by Pekka Hallberg, former President of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the legal ombudsmen of all the Central Asian countries.

Minister Hautala will also visit the border with Afghanistan and the OSCE Border Management Staff College. Cooperation in border-related issues is especially important in an area that is pivotal, for instance, with regard to the drug trade and human trafficking. In addition, the minister will become acquainted with the regional project of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), which is developing geological information systems and their transparency.

During the visit, the Memorandum of Understanding between Finland and Tajikistan, which defines the main areas of cooperation, will be signed. The most important development cooperation projects are associated with the promotion of decent work, development of the preconditions for trade, development of the rule of law, the management of water resources as well as inter-institutional cooperation, in which climate change management plays a key role.